oh my god, absolute blast from the past !!

i became EXTREMELY hyperfixated on Cars in the 2010s and Cars 2 became my absolute favorite movie - i still stand by the fact that it's an incredible, batshit movie that i desperately need to rewatch

THANK YOU so much for your kind words! i remember my fics getting a really positive reception from Cars fans at the time, so maybe i will give them another look and immortalize them properly on ao3 <3

1. Why do you like or dislike this character?

Darkwing has maybe been my favorite Disney character for the last 15 years because he's a loser narcissist who's also a bit of a bastard, and for some reason decided becoming a superhero was the best way to get all the love and attention he's ever wanted (and never received) despite all of the previously mentioned character flaws

But more seriously, it only took the pilot ep ("Darkly Dawns the Duck") to cement Drake as my favorite because of how lonely and pathetic he knows his life is! He made that choice, to become a hero, to forsake Drake Mallard, all to attain some impossible goal of having people love him when no one can even know who he is, the real him, because he's already pushed everyone away.

He goes from a sham of a superhero to a real hero when he finds someone to actually fight for, someone who sees him and knows him as Drake and cares about him instead of the phony Darkwing.

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

That he's an adoptive father!!

the disney afternoon had a surplus of implied adoptive dads, like donald duck and baloo from talespin, but there's nothing being implied here - drake adopts gosalyn, and their bond as father and daughter is the driving force of the show, it's the reason the show exists, and it's so genuinely loving and purposely written that so many of their episodes still make me tear up

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

he's a member of the Bad Childhood Havers Club! No one with loving parents and a stable home life grows up to be someone like Drake, who throws his real life away to become a nutcase in a mask and cape nobody takes seriously

21. If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like?

hoo boy, have I written for this character!?

But seriously, I adore writing Drake! When I write for him, I always know that his priority in any situation is always going to be his family, Gosalyn first, and Launchpad too. And while he can be a dick, he usually lashes out because of his own insecurities or because he has little to no patience for those he considers dummies beneath him (i.e., Gizmoduck)

Something I don't like is when he's written to be just too much of an asshole, or too stupid. I usually avoid fic that sets off red flags, but it's important to me that Drake not be portrayed as a solely bad person, because he isn't, and that people remember he is competent! At fighting and crime-solving! It's just that sometimes his own ego betrays him by getting in the way of an easy resolution

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

How silly he can be! While I love TFP Optimus, he lacks a bit of dimension for me compared to his Rescue Bots, Rise of the Beasts, and TF: One counterparts

TF: One especially upped the dummkopf status of Orion, which made his own leadership arc that much more compelling to me.

My favorite Optimus is always one that can balance the heart and inherent tragedy that make up the character

15. What's your favorite ship for this character? (Doesn't matter if it's canon or not.)

While I have a deep fondness for TFP Optiratch, TF: One just blasted the megop shipper in me to the stratosphere, I will never recover

26. What's something the character has done you can't get over? Be it something funny, bad, good, serious, whatever?

His DEATH in TF: One!

It's practically a running gag at this point that Optimus is 'robot Jesus,' so we can always expect every incarnation to die and be resurrected at some point, even if in a spinoff series.

But I went to an early fan screening of TF: One, going in with 0 spoilers, and the way my theater GASPED, and then went dead silent the moment D-16 fired his gun into Orion, I really can't describe the feeling

After so many years of Optimus dying and coming back, to the point that whatever sacrifice he made felt hollow, HERE I really felt the death of Orion as the tragedy it was meant to be - abrupt, unintentional, and at the hands of a friend

wow thank you!! <3 I hope this little train of thought makes sense!

I edit almost all of my amvs on my phone, using the free app VITA (capcut and I are mortal enemies)

As for transitions, when you use VITA you can see all the little white transition option blocks between each clip-that's where I mostly pull my transitions from, when I choose to use them

As for which to use for a smoother transition, I try to go with the motion of whatever clip i'm using! for example, from my latest ducktales amv, if i have a character sliding from the right to the left of the screen, i'll pick a transition that carries through that motion--maybe a slide to the left, that emphasizes the motion of the scene

adding to that, i might try to find a clip to follow that has similar motion, making the transition between clips feel more seamless and impactful

at the same time, I try to match the actions of the scene to the beat of the music, because i always find that so satisfying in my favorite amvs